Stable Movement

Hello, welcome back. To start, I might use a block at some point during this practice. If you have one handy, you can go ahead and bring it by your mat. But come onto your hands and your knees, big toes touch, and ease your hips onto your heels. Stretch your arms out for child's pose, taking a moment to ground, arrive here. Have an inhaling forward onto your hands. We'll move through a few cat-cows. On an inhale, the belly drops, gaze lifts, exhaling, rounding the back, dropping your gaze. Close your eyes, maybe take some time to make this about you and how you move, inhaling to tilt, and exhaling to round. One more time, inhaling, tilting, letting the collarbones broaden, and exhale to round. Coming back to neutral, tuck your left toes and float your right leg back, flex your foot so you have a little action at the end of the leg, and bring your left arm up. Stabilize a bit in the belly, take an inhale, and as you exhale, your knee and your elbow come towards your nose. Inhale, extend back out, exhale, knee and elbow come towards your nose, inhale, extend back out. One more time, really snuggling the belly to the spine, one more time lengthening, and then hand and knee back to the mat. Change sides, right toes tuck, left leg floats back, keep a little integrity in the leg, and keeping the hips square, right arm floats up, exhaling, knee to nose, elbow pulls in, inhale, extending, exhale, pulling in. One more time, reaching out, pulling in, and then release, hand and knee to the floor, can wiggle a little bit, get some space in the sacrum, tuck the toes, we'll meet in downward facing dog. From your down dog, look forward, walk your feet up, keep them separated slightly, take an inhale, and exhale to fold, let your head drop. Keep everything relaxed and kind of loosey-goosey, a little bend in the knees, and roll slowly all the way up to stand. And then inhale, reach your arms up, touch your palms together, exhaling, fold forward over your legs, take an inhale to look up, roll your shoulders back, tent your fingers on the floor, and step your left foot back into a crescent lunge, so you plug the right heel into the floor, and inhale, arms come up, taking a moment here, firing up the legs, let the shoulders move down and back a little, in the belly, inhale, exhale, fingertips come to the floor, pull the belly in, jump switch, jump switch, jump switch, so your left foot is forward, plugging the right heel up towards your bum, so you have some support from that back leg as you come up, left side crescent lunge. Take an inhale here, exhale, hands to the floor, step back to a high plank, take an inhale, exhale to chaturanga, inhale, up dog, and exhale, downward facing dog, look forward, walk your feet up, inhale to lift, and exhale, fold, come up with a flat back this time, inhaling, arms up, and exhale to release your hands. I'm going to grab my block, we're going to move to triangle, stepping out about three, three and a half feet, and the block is going to be in my right hand, right toes turn out, take an inhale, and exhale dip to the right, adjusting the block so it's at the right height for you, look up at your left hand, take a few moments here, a little engagement in the belly space across the chest, take an inhale, and come up, and exhale, change sides. Your brain likes symmetry more than your body does, you don't have to do the same thing with the block on this side, just taking some time to breathe here, on an inhale coming up, release your hands, and then turn, so your left foot is 45 degrees, your right foot is forward, hips are square, take an inhale, you can take the block with you if you want, as you exhale your left hand comes near your right foot for revolved triangle, looking up towards your right hand, belly and breastbone try to come with you into the twist, take an inhale, and exhaling come up, and change sides. I like my block on the left side, I don't necessarily like it on the right, you can make adjustments as you need, take an inhale, and exhale to your revolved triangle, and see if you can think about getting a little taller through the crown of your head, lengthening in your neck, and at the same time really stabilizing in your legs. Look down to get your balance, push into your legs, come up, and release your hands. We're done with the block, so you can move it to the side, and then come back into your wide-legged stance, your toes are a little bit pigeon-toed, hands at your hips, take an inhale here, belly pulls in a little bit, and exhaling to fold, bring your hands to the floor in the same line as your toes, take an inhale, and exhale fold, let your head drop, let your fingers walk a little bit further back, tip your weight forward, take a couple of deep breaths, even deeper exhales, on an inhale lift your gaze, and as you exhale place your hands in your hips, and inhale come all the way back up, turn your feet out, take a moment get your balance, and then as you exhale lunge into both legs, try and move your knees back so that you really engage in the insides of your thighs, lift your breastbone up, reach your arms out, your left elbow goes underneath your right, wrists wrap, elbows and wrists move away, draw your shoulders back for two, three, four, five, arms wide, stand up, and exhale right elbow underneath, whoops your left, coming back into your horse, a double lunge for one, if you feel a little spunky, two, you can pop your heels up, three, four, five, heels down if they were lifted, stand up, toes in, interlace your hands behind your tailbone, take an inhale, and as you exhale fold, take your arms with you, keep your weight tipping forward, let gravity do some of the work, big exhale, very gently ease your fingers to the floor, and you can come up about halfway and just crawl your hands forward so that your right foot is forward and planted into the mat, your hands can stay tented, ground into your right foot, float your left leg up, push like you're pushing something away with your left heel, then look forward, find some length here, belly pulls in a little bit, take an inhale and then draw the belly in, bring your left foot to meet your right, inhale to lift, and float your right leg out, really snuggling the left foot into the floor, finding some grounding here, shoulders can roll down, if you feel so inspired one hand can come up but doesn't have to, taking an inhale, and then exhaling to release, let your head drop, forward fold, and then roll slowly, inhaling to come up, and we'll move to tree pose for Exasana, your left leg is your standing leg, your right knee can come up in the same line as your hip, and then bring your right foot either inside of your left thigh, calf, or ankle. Take a few moments to ground here, feeling your hips square, a little engagement in the belly, and then maybe reach your arms up, use your exhales to stabilize, and your inhales to grow, and then hands come back down, right knee comes back to the center, and release, you can roll the ankle of the standing foot, and then same thing on the other side, left knee pulls in, and adjusting so that it feels comfortable for your hip and your knee, take some time to ground, to feel stable, and you don't have to do the same thing on this side, maybe be a little creative with your arms, trees move, it's okay if you do too, and then as you're ready, knee comes back, and release, roll the ankle of your right leg, and then we'll step back up to the top of the mat, inhale, reach your arms up, and exhale, fold forward over your legs, letting your head drop, take an inhale to look up, exhale, step back, lower down, inhale, upward facing dog, and exhale, down dog, look forward from your down dog, jump or step up, and sit down with your legs out in front of you, roll down onto your back, and pull your heels in just behind your bum, close enough that you can graze your middle finger on your heels, feeling your shoulder blades press into the floor, and then press pinky side of hands into the mat, and lift your hips up into bridge pose, shoulder blades press down, heels press down, hands press down, hips go up, take a few moments here, really grounding down into your heels, and refine what you're doing in your shoulders, keep that awareness of the chest lifting up, because your triceps press down, you can shimmy the shoulders underneath you, interlacing your hands, but keep energetically reaching towards the feet, pressing down in the arms, heels, letting your thighs lift, hands come out of the way, slowly come back down to the floor, heels can come in a little bit closer, so that you could grab your heels, and you can adjust a little bit to get that grip, and then one more time bridge pose, using the grip to pull a little bit, your chest is moving towards your chin, and just take a moment and be here, concentrating on lifting the femur bone up, letting everything else move down, if you feel your knees splaying, imagine you're holding a tennis ball between your knees, so you have something to grip, and then slowly easing back down, pull your knees in, wobble a little bit side to side, if you have that block handy, go ahead and grab it, so that it is on its lowest setting, underneath your tailbone, so that you feel nice and supported, take a moment to arrive here, get comfortable, and then gently bring your legs up, and pause, let your belly relax, let gravity do some of the work, concentrate on grounding down, giving yourself an opportunity here, to release the backs of the legs, relax in the lower back, kind of a very sleepy shoulder stand, when you feel ready, your knees can come in towards your belly, and you can even take your hands to your feet, and reach your legs up towards your head, for an upside down Paschimottanasana, try to imagine the small of your back really moving into the block, keeping that length, and the knees bending, feet come back to the floor, gently lift up, moving the block out of the way, and pull your knees back in, arms can go wide, drop your bent knees to the right side, taking the time to stack your hips, making sure that you feel sustainable, you can be here for a moment, and turn your head in the opposite direction, relax in the belly, and then slowly coming back to the center, before we go to the other side, taking your hands to the outsides of your feet, and pulling apart for a happy baby, kind of widening a little bit in the hips, and if you have the range, if you feel so inspired, you can also straighten the legs, so your back, and this wide legged stance, grounding the tailbone down, keeping the shoulders pressed back, keeping everything pretty easy at this point, bending the knees once more, and then the knees come together, arms reach out, drop them to the left side, turning your head in the opposite direction, and breathe easy here, you're on the downhill slide, when you're ready, knees pull back in, give yourself a big squeeze, pulling as you exhale, and then release, take your feet a little wider than you would normally, really take up space, arms out, palms open, shoulders pressed back, close your eyes, notice where you are in the room, what you can hear, how your body feels on the floor, and for the next minute or so, release into it, relax and surround your surroundings within them. There you go. Bring some attention back to your breath.

And knees can pull in, roll to one side, make your way up, take an easy seat. One hand to your belly, one hand to your chest. Feel your breath. Thank you for being here, thank you for sharing this practice with me and sharing your time. Namaste.